The UC Marketing Capstone Experience

January 20, 2014

Diving In!

Equipped with the guidance of Drew on Monday and the Capstone packet, I have taken the leap into the scary, yet exciting Capstone waters. My main goal this week was to further familiarize myself with the product and the product category. After the initial meeting, I wasn't completely clear about how exactly the product worked and all the capabilities that it offered. So, I fiddled with the demo that Jon sent us for a little bit and it really helped me build a greater understanding of the Transforum service. I was not very familiar with the various innovation platforms/services that were available and I wanted to get a general sense of how Transforum related to other innovation services. So, I researched about 50 different innovation services/products to get a deeper sense of the competitive environment and the possible opportunities that exist within the current market. I created an excel spreadsheet and charted out the weaknesses and strengths of each competitor as well as a brief description about the innovation product/service that each competitor offered. This research has provided me with a valuable foundation to start working out our charter; which is going to be the main goal for this week.

Laying out deliverables and guidelines will help ensure that we remain on task and that we hold ourselves accountable. As a chronic procrastinator, this will be extremely important to my success throughout this project. I am also going to expect my teammate Jon, to hold me accountable for the deadlines. We also have a conference call scheduled for today at 2:00PM with our client to discuss some of his expectations and deadlines. I also want to address the budget in our call, because this is definitely an important consideration moving forward in our project. Hashing out a budget could be a little awkward, but being uncomfortable is a part of the Capstone experience and living within one's comfort zone prohibits growth. I am looking forward to the coming week of challenges and excitement which will come the deeper I dive into this project!

Quote of the week: "Be willing to be uncomfortable. Be comfortable being uncomfortable. It may get tough, but its a small price to pay for living a dream." -Peter McWilliams